The Knick

Pardon the intrusion, gentlemen.

William, good to see you.

What brings you up from Baltimore?

The board at Columbia asked for a consultation

on how best to teach surgery to their medical students.

- Aha. - We're all the rage these days.

William, let me introduce my apprentice Dr. John Thackery.

Thack, this is Dr. William Halsted.

- Pleasure. - Pleasure's all mine.

I had the good fortune of working with your colleague.

Dr. Osler in Philadelphia a few years back.

I know you're doing extraordinary things.

Well, you're in good hands yourself.

J.M. was always a step ahead of me in school,

in sport, and with the women.

Well, Dr. Thackery might best the both of us.

In short order, he's proven himself indispensable to the Knick.

High praise from someone notoriously stingy with it.

After what you witness today, you'll be praising this man

in the hallways of your hospital for years to come.

Then let me take my seat and let the games begin.

Good luck, gentlemen.

You didn't have to do that.

I meant every word of it.

You're a comet in the sky, young Thack.

Embrace it.

I just feel that the surgery could very well fail.

You've rehearsed it over and over in the pathological lab.

It will succeed brilliantly.

We've got a full theater out there.

Colleagues you've invited with the promise of a great breakthrough today.

A man whose life hangs in the balance.

It could be the biggest finding of my career

or an absolute disaster.

You're just nervous.

I am. Aren't you?

I won't be in a moment.

I wonder what Halsted would say if he knew about this.

Who do you think told me about it?

The appendix is a rudimentary, functionless organ.

A relic, really, and yet it still has the power

to fell a man in the prime of health

and has proven a difficult adversary.

The patient on the table is 25. An attorney.

No history of alcoholism or syphilis.

He was perfectly fit until yesterday

when he was struck down with acute abdominal pain.

Then Dr. Thackery quickly deduced appendicitis.

The pain has worsened, the fever risen.

Vomiting began this morning.

We could take the usual course with therapeutics,

but we know these yield poor results

and most often death.

It is my belief that there is a way

to almost guarantee full recovery in all appendicitis cases,

and that is the complete removal of the organ.

They're ready.

Let's give 'em a show.

Dr. Thackery will make the first incision.

In countless trials, Dr. Thackery has devised a way

in which to accurately determine the location of the appendix,

thus eliminating the estimation

of where to make the initial incision.

Dr. Thackery.

Surgical knife.

By drawing a line and divining the midway point

between the anterior-superior iliac spine

and the umbilicus,

parallel to the fibers of the external oblique,

no matter what the size or sex of the patient...

you will always find the appendix.

And there it is.

The Thackery Point never misses.

Please, Johnny. Johnny, please.

Please, Johnny.

Hold his arms and legs.

Get some towels.

You should load up his bowl.

He's gonna need something for the pain.

And, uh...

could you...

load up a fresh one for me, please?

Shh. Shh.

Late night.

Been watching you for a while from over there.

And I'm thinking you might just be a clergyman's daughter

out here on the street like you are.

Pardon me?

I got an offer for you.

Could be good for both of us.

I happen to be acquainted with a Mr. Collier

who takes very good care of girls like you.

To have another dark one in his stable

might be good for business, so I suppose...

I ain't what you think I am.

Sure. Sure.

But might you be interested in a little proposal?

Make you some good money for what you're doing out here already.

What I'm doing out here is waiting for someone.

Well, maybe I'm that someone.

That someone is my man and I ain't no streetwalker.

- You got that? - The hell you think you're doing?

He thinks I'm a street whore.

- Hold on. - Tried making me an offer.

Trying to fuck my girl, is that it, Paddy?

Back off, spooky.

You don't want to start nothing with me.

The hell I don't!

Stop him!

Come on.

Hey, where you going? Hey, somebody find that nigger!

A doctor!

Somebody run and get the doctor!

One of youse call the surgeons.

It's the cop Sears.

He's been cut bad. Stabbed by a dirty coon in the street.

Come on.

And up. All right.

Now come back at me, ya gobdaw,

I'll bust you to your knees and make you lick the back of 'em.

Back! Make way, we got real working folk coming through.

- What's all this about? - Not a clue.

They're boiling up about something.

Interesting way to start your first day back.

It certainly is. Here, allow me. Come on.

My apologies for my lateness.

I was taking Eleanor to see her parents.

There's no need to explain. It's good to have you back.

So we'll repair the hole and re-inflate the lung

once the bleeding has stopped.

He'll have to make do with the other one for now.

Nurse Elkins, forehead, please.

Me as well, Nurse.

Suction.

Tied off the hepatic artery,

but the renal is going to require significant repair.

Well, let's do it.

He'll need that blood flow

or he's likely to become ischemic.

You say you know him?

Officer Sears. Good man.

Used to go on calls with Speight for the HD.

And he's got a fine crowd outside rooting him on to health.

Never mind who they're rooting against.

You know, when this surgery is through,

I will write a love poem to this machine.

Bertie, step aside. I'll do that.

So he's missed the aorta, but hit the liver square.

Took a good slice out of it.

He should already be dead.

What is that?

This, Everett, is the miraculous

Edwards suction machine.

I'm building a second one.

For my birthday, I presume.

Hmm.

There you go, lad. All right.

Whoa, whoa.

Here we go. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

- Where's my boy? - Shh, shh.

Where are they keeping him? The butchers.

We're gonna take you to him, Mrs. Sears.

- Phinny's a strong boy. - Aye, strong.

Ain't that right, Jenny?

He'll be home bouncing Charlie and Ailish

on his knee again in no time.

Part the way.

Let the boy's family through.

- Let's go. - Get your arses to the side!

The family is here.

We've done everything we can, but the lung is still a problem.

We'll go back and repair that if he gets stronger.

We've just got to hope he makes it through the next few hours.

I knew Phinny. He's a good man.

You mean you know him.

Don't go digging any graves, Missy.

Of course. If there's anything you need, just ask.

You want to help us, do you?

Then find the devious nigger that done this to our boy

and string him up in City Hall Park.

Oh, we'll find him and do just that, Mrs. Sears.

I'm not sure that's helpful right now.

We should be concentrating on the family and praying for Phinny to get well.

You know what? Cut your shit spittin'.

- He's gonna make it just fine. - Yeah.

Our Phinny's got more pluck in his little finger

than all you got in all your sorry souls.

To Phinny!

Aye, to Phinny!

That's the spirit.

Bertie.

I'll be back to finish the chart, Nurse.

Has everyone gone completely mad today?

What do you mean?

First I had to push my way past an angry mob to get into the building,

and then I had to push my way past Edwards in the theater.

Ah.

Well, you weren't in yet, so Thackery needed an extra pair of hands.

It's more than that. He was treating him like some old school chum.

And that contraption...